Vince Young, who hasn’t played an NFL game since 2011, will try to restart his stalled career in a three-day minicamp with the Browns on April 29 through May 1.
The 6-foot-5, 230-pound quarterback was drafted by the Tennessee Titans with the third overall pick in 2006.
His career began well enough. He was 8-5 as a rookie and 9-6 in 2007. After starting one game in 2008, he was 8-2 in 2009, but then he was 4-4 in 2010. He was 1-3 with the Titans in 2011.
Young was with the Bills in their 2012 training camp and with the Packers last summer. He was cut before the season opener each year.
The Browns have also invited career backup quarterback Tyler Thigpen to the three-day pre-draft minicamp.
Prior to adding Young and Thigpen, the only quarterbacks on the roster were Brian Hoyer and Alex Tanney. No one is saying when Hoyer will be ready to practice, but it likely won’t be this minicamp. Hoyer’s right ACL was torn in a game against the Bills on Oct. 3 last year.
“I’m comfortable with him,” General Manager Ray Farmer said on April 29. “I don’t really want to comment about guys’ health and who is injured, who’s not and where they’re at, but he’s fine. He’ll be fine. It’s a long way away before we play any football. I’m excited where Brian is right now.”
The Browns are expected to draft a quarterback in the first or second round, which means Young and Thigpen are likely battling for a job as a third quarterback, assuming Hoyer is on track to be ready for the opener, if not sooner.
“The interest in Vince is that he’s been productive,” Farmer said on April 28. “He’s had success in the National Football League. We wanted to take the opportunity to get a chance to see what he was. We had been kind of following him through the offseason, and he had been doing some things that kind of caught our eye and made us take note, and we wanted to see what that looked like in his own time frame.
“When the opportunity was right, minicamp seemed to be the appropriate time, then we brought him in.”
Thigpen was out of the league in 2013. He has played with the Chiefs, Dolphins and Bills since entering the league in 2007 as a seventh-round draft choice of the Vikings and as 12 career starts — 11 of those with the Chiefs in 2008 when he went 1-10.Kosar charge reduced
Former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar pleaded no contest on April 29 on charges of reckless operation stemming from a September arrest for allegedly driving drunk in Solon.
Kosar refused a Breathalyzer test, according to reports. He said he couldn’t perform a field sobriety test because of ankle and knee surgeries resulting from his football career.
“I am pleased with the court’s decision that reaffirms that alcohol was not involved in my traffic citation from September in any way,” Kosar said in a statement. “I sincerely apologize to my fellow Clevelanders for the guilty charge of reckless operation, resulting from speeding in a construction zone. In the future, I will strive to be more cautious and careful.”
Kosar, 50, was in the news last week because WKYC-TV and the Browns announced he was being replaced by Solomon Wilcots as the color analyst for Browns preseason games.Haslam involved
Browns owner Jimmy Haslam has been involved in some of the interviews of draft prospects, but Farmer won’t say which ones.
“He is involved,” Farmer said. “He is in meetings. He comes around. We keep him up to speed on what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. He’s not a guy that applies pressure.
“He’s very supportive, and he wants to make sure that we are doing our due diligence in all factors. Inevitably, I would tell you that he’s not a guy that’s going to impede the process.”
This is Haslam’s second draft since buying the Browns from Randy Lerner in 2012.